Best AI SDR tools, compared by what the agent does

Regie.ai, branded RegieGO, describes AI agents that source, enrich, dial and email from your own inbox, plus LinkedIn tasks. It lists channel orchestration across email, LinkedIn and phone, a power dialer, "why-now" signals such as funding or a new VP, and a built-in CRM that can sync with HubSpot, Salesforce or Monday. It suits a single seller who wants one workspace.

It sends from your own Gmail or Outlook. Free is $0 with 250 one-time credits shared by up to 10 people. Pro is $49 a month billed monthly ($41 billed annually) for one person with 5,000 credits a month. Team is $150 per seat a month ($125 annually), with a two-seat minimum.

One limit to know: credits cover research, drafting, enrichment and dialing, and paid-plan credits do not roll over. Checked 18 October 2026.

Instantly pairs cold email sending with a lead database. Its pages list a Lead Finder Agent, an AI Sales Agent, an AI Reply Agent, an AI Email Writer, and unlimited email accounts with warmup and inbox placement tools. It suits teams sending outbound email in volume.

The AI Reply Agent is the standout, and it appears in the Scale bundle at $194 a month ($175 billed yearly). Outreach-only plans start with Growth at $47 a month ($37.60 yearly) for 5,000 emails monthly. The Starter bundle, which includes credits, is $94 ($85 yearly). The call to action says "Start For Free", but the pricing page doesn't give a trial length or free-plan limits.

One limit: four pricing tabs (Bundles, Outreach, Credits, VIP) make plans slow to compare. Checked 18 October 2026.

Apollo is not branded as an AI SDR. It is a database with sequences, a dialer and AI features, which makes it a cheaper base for teams building their own agent-like workflow. The free plan includes 900 credits per seat per year and two sequences. Professional ($79 per seat a month billed annually, $99 monthly) adds AI lead scoring. Basic is $49 annually ($65 monthly), and Organization is $119 annually with a three-seat minimum.

AI research costs 1 credit per run, so the cost is easy to see. One limit to know about: credits do not roll over, and all seats must share a plan. Checked 17 October 2026. See the Apollo pricing guide.

Buska finds buyers in public conversations and adds an AI SDR agent on its top plan. You enter your website, and it listens for matching posts across 30+ platforms, scores them and drafts your reply. Lead labels such as HOT and WARM carry a score. Its own home page describes it as suited to a B2B founder without a sales team.

Standout: Starter is $49 a month, Growth $99 and Scale $249. The AI SDR Agent is on Scale, and its page says it "hunts, drafts and sends outreach for you". The feature table says "AI-drafted outreach (you approve)" and "Real email sending + reply tracking". There is a 7-day free trial with no card.

A fair limit: the page and the table word this differently, so read the table closely to see which steps need your approval. Checked 17 October 2026.

HubSpot's Sales Hub lists a Breeze Prospecting Agent (Beta), multi-channel outreach and sequences, call tracking with a power dialer, AI deal scoring and forecasting. It suits teams that already keep records in HubSpot.

Standout: Free for up to two users, no card. Starter and Professional are priced per seat. Our visit showed rupee figures (Starter from ₹585 a month per seat, Professional from ₹7,497), so no US figure is recorded here. AI features use HubSpot Credits.

A fair limit: the page says LinkedIn actions need a Sales Navigator subscription. Checked 18 October 2026.

Artisan's main product is Ava, an AI BDR. Its pages say Ava finds leads (250M+ contacts), runs outbound and CRM re-engagement campaigns across email and social, handles replies and books meetings. It sends in the reps' names from the customer's own domains. Customers can require approval before sending and set banned phrases.

The approval controls stand out. No dollar prices are listed. The Team plan is "~2,500 leads contacted/mo" and Scale is "~6,000". Each is scoped with sales, and there is a 30-minute demo. No trial is listed.

One fair limit: you cannot compare cost until you get on a call. The site claims results such as "20x ROI", but those are vendor statements.

Checked 18 October 2026.

11x describes agents for outbound prospecting, inbound qualification and customer expansion, "fully managed, CRM-native, live in days". It names Alice (outbound) and Julian (inbound), plus a voice agent. It suits larger teams ready to hand a channel to a managed service.

Standout: voice and chat alongside email. Price: not listed. Its /pricing page returned a 404 on 18 October 2026, and the calls to action are "Get a demo" and "Try Voice AI". The home page shows customer reply-rate figures, which are vendor-selected testimonials.

A fair limit: no public price and no trial terms. Checked 18 October 2026.

Salesloft sells a revenue platform that includes Cadence, Conversation Intelligence, Deals, Signals and AI Agents. Its Signals pitch says it ranks revenue signals and pushes next steps to teams. It suits revenue operations teams at companies that want one stack.

Standout: breadth across conversations and deals. Price: not listed. The pricing URL leads to a "Talk to sales" form, and no trial is listed. One limit worth noting: its home page does not describe monitoring Reddit or X. Checked 18 October 2026.

HearBuyers does a different job. It doesn't write cold outbound or send anything. It reads public posts on X and Reddit, scores buying intent from 0 to 100 and drafts a reply that a person approves and posts. In the order of work it sits before an AI SDR: find the people who already asked, then use an outbound tool for the accounts that haven't. If you want full autopilot, it isn't the right tool.

1. Decide who approves. If every message has to be read before it goes out, pick a tool with an approval step and test it.
2. Check the sending domain. Several tools send from your own domain, so warm it up and keep volume low at the start.
3. Price the whole stack. Data, sending and the agent are sometimes billed separately.
4. Run a two-week pilot. Cap the volume, read each message and count real replies, not opens.

It automates parts of the sales development role: finding leads, writing outreach, following up and sometimes booking meetings. Tools differ on how much a person reviews.

Regie.ai has a $0 free plan and a $49 Pro plan. Buska runs $49 to $249 a month, and Instantly outreach plans start at $47. Artisan, 11x and Salesloft list no prices.

The pages we read describe agents that work alongside a team, and some, like Artisan, offer approval settings. Whether that replaces a hire depends on your volume and deal size.

No. It finds buyers in public posts and drafts replies you approve. It does not run outbound sequences.

Next step: pick one self-serve tool, send to 50 prospects you would be happy to meet, and read every message before it goes.